U.S. Sen. Al Franken gets a hug from fellow senator Amy Klobuchar after speaking to supporters in Minneapolis on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017. When Franken officially resigns from the Senate on Tuesday, he will end his tenure as Minnesota's biggest-name political celebrity. (Pioneer Press / John Autey)

St. Louis Park native Al Franken is all smiles after he formally announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Norm Coleman at his radio show headquarters on Wednesday Feb. 14, 2007. (Chris Polydoroff / Pioneer Press)

Al Franken, left, longtime friend Tom Davis and Franken's wife, Franni, collaborated on the "The Franken & Davis Show," then appearing in 1976 at the Dudley Riggs Experimental Theater Company in Minneapolis. The revue spoofs the idiosyncrasies of U.S. television and the government. (Pioneer Press Files)

Al Franken,at right in mirror, reflecting on a character he created while on "Saturday Night Live," his alter ego Stuart Smalley. "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"(Courtesy of Paccione Photo Inc.)

Al Franken, DFL candidate for U.S. Senate, pumps up the crowd before his campaign speech while standing on a chair at Christy's Cafe during a campaign stop on Oct. 18, 2008. (Sherri LaRose-Chiglo / Pioneer Press)

President Bill Clinton, right, campaigns for Al Franken, left, candidate for U.S. Senate, at the Minneapolis Convention Center during a rally on Oct. 30, 2008 in Minneapolis. (Sherri LaRose-Chiglo / Pioneer Press)

U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken and his wife, Franni, wait in line for a voting booth to open up at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis on Nov. 4, 2008. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Under the scrutiny of Franken campaign observers, Stillwater city clerk Diane Ward goes through a third recount of Cottage Grove's Precinct 9 at the Washington County Government Center in Stillwater on Wednesday Nov. 19, 2008. The machine vote tally gave Franken 606 votes from the precinct on election night, but only 601 votes during Wednesday's recount. (Richard Marshall / Pioneer Press)

Norm Coleman arrives at the State Office building to address reporters and supporters at a press conference where he announced his plans to sue to challenge Democrat Al Franken's apparent recount victory in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race St. Paul on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. (Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)

Al Franken during an interview in Washington on January 21, 2009. (Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)

Norm Coleman listens as a witness is examined by his lawyer during a court session before a three-judge panel hearing the U.S. Senate recount case at the Minnesota Judicial Center in St. Paul on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2008. Coleman is now suing to overturn the results of the recount, which left Democrat Al Franken ahead by 225 votes. (Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)

Democrat Al Franken is in good spirits as he speaks to members of the media outside his condominium in Minneapolis on Monday, April 13, 2009. Three Minnesota judges decided that Franken indeed won last November's U.S.Senate race over then-incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. (Richard Marshall / Pioneer Press)

Al Franken and his wife Franni walk down the steps of their home in Minneapolis during the start of a press conference on Tuesday, June 30, 2009. The Minnesota Supreme Court today unanimously decided that Franken, a Democrat, won the highest number of votes in last year's U.S. Senate race and deserves a signed election certificate. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he would sign the certificate today. The court said that Republican Norm Coleman didn't prove that a lower court made enough mistakes to need a rehearing of the case. (Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)

Al Franken kisses his wife, Fanni,after delivering a speech at a rally celebrating his Senate win at the State Capitol in St. Paul on July 1, 2009.
(Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)

Sen. Al Franken shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden after reciting the oath of office during a ceremonial swearing in following the formal event in the old Senate chamber in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, July 7, 2009. Franken became Minnesota's junior U.S. Senator following months of legal wrangling between he and Republican Norm Coleman following the recount of November's election results. (Jenna Isaacson Pfueller / Special to the Pioneer Press)

Al Franken waits with his family, from left, son Joe Franken, daughter Thomasin Franken and his wife, Franni Franken, for the start of a ceremonial oath of office in the old Senate chamber on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 in Washington, D.C. Franken's swearing in ceremony follows months of legal wrangling between he and Republican Norm Coleman following the recount of November's election results. (Jenna Isaacson Pfueller / Special to the Pioneer Press)

Minnesota senior U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar laughs with freshman Senator Al Franken as they await introduction at a reception in his honor on the 9th floor of the Hart Senate building on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 in Washington, D.C. Sworn in 246 days after the November election, Franken addressed friends and family, quoting the late Sen. Wellstone and vowing to get to work right away for health care reform. (Jenna Isaacson Pfueller / Special to the Pioneer Press)

U.S. Senator Al Franken, DFL-Minnesota is seen in his official portrait, taken in July 2009. (Courtesy of the U.S. Senate)

Sen. Al Franken towels off before getting his picture taken with Laura Clauson, left, and Samantha Koshiol on a hot day at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Former President Bill Clinton, center, greets Sen. Al Franken as he walks onstage during a get-out-the-vote rally at Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis on Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is at left. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Sen. Al Franken's suit and tie go flying as he tells a touching and funny story about former Sen. Paul Wellstone at Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis on Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. Former President Bill Clinton headlined the event, hosted by the University of Minnesota College Democrats, in support of Franken and Dayton. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

U.S. Sen Al Franken, left, greets a supporter after speaking in Minneapolis on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017. The Minnesota Democrat thanked supporters and friends in Minneapolis Thursday night as his eight years in the Senate are set to come to an end. (Pioneer Press / John Autey)

When U.S. Sen. Al Franken officially resigns from the Senate on Tuesday, he will end his tenure as Minnesota’s biggest-name political celebrity.

Sure, the North Star State has produced other high-profile elected officials. Vice presidents and presidential nominees Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale rose to higher political heights than Franken. And former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura “shocked the world” by getting elected governor.

But after a three-decade career as a comedian and best-selling author, Franken was better known than all of them even before he was elected to the Senate in 2008.

He may even be more famous now after announcing his resignation amid allegations of sexual misconduct by several women that eroded his support among his fellow Democratic lawmakers.

Minnesota’s junior senator has become a poster boy representing powerful men brought down by the national #MeToo campaign to combat sexual harassment.

FRANKEN THE POLICY WONK

Franken, 66, made his name as a writer and actor on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” but when he got to Washington, he worked hard to distance himself from his reputation as a comic and fire-breathing liberal. During his first six-year term in the Senate, he declined interviews with the national media (although he was highly visible back home in Minnesota), instead opting to impress his colleagues as a serious policy wonk who, despite strong political views, could build relationships with senators of all stripes.

Norm Ornstein, an American Enterprise Institute scholar and Franken friend, said the senator wisely chose to become a work horse, not a show horse. He compared Franken to previous celebrity Sens. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Hillary Clinton of New York who “built reputations for not playing superstar all the time. Al did that.”

Franken was a quick study in the Capitol. After just a few weeks in office, he managed to pass with broad, bipartisan support a bill that provided service dogs to disabled veterans. He put his stamp on several other significant pieces of legislation, including a measure that required insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of their premiums on health care costs and another that expanded a federal diabetes-prevention program.

FRANKEN’S POLITICAL PATH

In his latest book “Al Franken, Giant of the Senate,” published earlier this year, the senator wrote that even though Washington has been “awash in nincompoopery” for a decade, representing Minnesota in the Senate is “the best job I’ve ever had.”

Here’s how he described his political journey:

“It’s the story of a Midwestern Jewish boy of humble roots (the first in his family to own a pasta maker) who, after a thirty-five-year career in comedy, moved back home to challenge an incumbent senator. It’s the story of how a satirist who had spent a good part of his career heaping scorn and ridicule upon conservative Republican officeholders developed a solid working relationship with (many of) his Republican colleagues. It’s the story of how a novice politician learned not just how to win an election, but how to be good at serving in office: how to find common ground when possible, but also stand his ground when powerful interests come after the middle class. It’s the story of how, after spending a lifetime learning to be funny, I learned how not to be funny.”

After winning his first election over Republican Norm Coleman by a razor-thin margin, Franken seemed liberated by comfortably winning a second term in 2014. While he continued his serious policy work, he started speaking out more in the national media with his edgy humor back on full display. He became a big draw on the political speaking circuit, appearing on TV talk shows and raising millions of dollars for Democrats across the country.

After President Donald Trump’s election, he emerged as a tough inquisitor of presidential appointees including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“There was no more effective cross-examiner in the U.S. Senate than non-lawyer Al Franken,” Ornstein said.

His seventh book, the funny-but-serious memoir quickly became a best seller. Franken even was mentioned as a potential 2020 presidential candidate.

ALLEGATIONS BEGIN TO PILE UP

But his rising Senate career came crashing to an end this fall after Los Angeles radio host Leeann Tweeden blog-posted a photo of Franken apparently grasping at her clothed breasts while she slept aboard a plane following a 2006 USO tour to entertain American soldiers overseas. Within days, several more women accused him of touching them inappropriately.

The senator issued a series of apologies and called for a Senate ethics investigation into the allegations. But on Dec. 6, as more accusations piled up, more than two dozen Senate Democrats called for him to step aside. He announced his resignation the following day.

In a speech on the Senate floor, he insisted he had done nothing to dishonor the institution but acknowledged he could no longer serve effectively.

“Serving in the United States Senate has been the great honor of my life,” he said. (Franken denied a request for an interview for this story.)

FRANKEN’S LEGISLATIVE RECORD

It’s hard to get a clear read on Franken’s legislative record. If you simply look at the number of bills he proposed and amendments he offered, his output is relatively modest: 277 pieces of legislation — 162 bills and 115 amendments in nine years, according to Congress.gov. His staff said just a “handful” of his bills became law.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone, said Steven Schier, political science professor at Carleton College. “He would not pass a lot of laws because he’s in the minority party in the Senate, and the minority does not pass laws.”

But Franken’s fingerprints are scattered over dozens of larger bills assembled in committees. He tacked several public health and insurance provisions onto the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

More recently, he joined Republicans in rewriting the No Child Left Behind education bill. He also crafted provisions in bills designed to combat domestic violence, expand mental health and rural health care, promote renewable energy sources and protect Native American interests.

Voting studies ranked him among the most partisan senators, siding with Democratic leaders more than 90 percent of the time.

A LOOK AT FRANKEN’S LEGACY

Part of Franken’s legacy is that he effectively called attention to important issues that others often overlooked. For example, he was an early and forceful proponent for net neutrality rules, arguing to keep the Web free and open so major internet providers could not manipulate what consumers can see and do online.

He also was a leading voice warning of the dangers of media consolidation, contending that consumers would have less choice, hear fewer voices and pay higher prices if big media conglomerates, such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable, were allowed to merge.

As for his political legacy, Franken was a “tireless campaigner” for Democrats, Ornstein said. He raised hefty sums of money for the party’s candidates and energized its base with passionate speeches and provocative-yet-humorous books, including “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.”

He inspired progressives to fight for their values — and also aroused angry conservatives to battle back.

“He’s a polarizing figure,” Schier said. “As a public spokesman, he was fiercely partisan, much more so than is usual for a member of the Minnesota delegation, where they still play nice — Minnesota nice.”

Franken’s unintended legacy might be that he helped spark Washington to do something about sexual misconduct. It’s been going on for years, but after Franken and at least six other lawmakers resigned or decided not to seek re-election after being accused by women of behaving badly, it appears Congress will finally attempt to address the issues the #MeToo movement has raised.

WHAT’S AHEAD

Franken’s resignation opened the door to another female in the U.S. Senate, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, whom Gov. Mark Dayton appointed to Franken’s soon-to-be vacant seat. She will be sworn in on Wednesday.

Franken isn’t going away. “I may be resigning my seat, but I am not giving up my voice,” he said in his Dec. 7 speech. He pledged to remain politically active.

Nobody knows how effective Franken can be outside elected office, but given a public backlash against the way his colleagues pushed him out, he — unlike some of his disgraced colleagues — appears to be leaving Washington with much of his reputation intact.

Bill Salisbury has been a newspaper reporter since 1971. He started covering the Minnesota Capitol for the Rochester Post-Bulletin in 1975, joined the Pioneer Press as a general assignment reporter in 1977 and was assigned to the Capitol bureau in 1978. He was the paper's Washington correspondent from 1994 through 1999, when he returned to the Capitol bureau. Although he retired in January 2015, he continues to work at the Capitol part time.

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